Mr Pallas  (Tarneit) —  I have a  great deal  of trepidation  in speaking  in support  of  this matter of  public importance, largely  because  Victorians are bearing the brunt of this government’s failure to manage.

Victorians  are struggling under  the  weight of a  government that burdens them with the  politics of austerity and negativity. This government  never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Every  forgone effort and timidity of action translates into lost jobs and lost opportunities. This state is encumbered by an underwhelming,  underachieving, job-destroying  government, which  sits  at  the centre  of  our  state’s  economic  malaise. In recent weeks we have seen  major companies that are  staples of their local economies pull their  investment from Victoria  resulting in  the loss  of very  many jobs. A  hundred have  gone from Holden and some 450 are threatened if the Shell oil refinery cannot be sold. The list  goes  on.  Ford  is  looking  shaky.  We  have  job losses  at the  Target distribution centre, the Telstra Sensis  call centre, BlueScope Steel, Amcor and Boral, not  to mention the cuts to  the public sector. All  of  these are direct hits that have an immediate impact on communities.

None other than the former executive  of Ford, current chairman of BHP Billiton, Jac Nasser, predicted that the automotive manufacturing industry was on its  way out just a  few days  after Holden’s  announcement. The  regions to  the west of Melbourne and  Geelong have been taking  the hits. Pockets of  high unemployment are developing right  across our state. The most recent federal government small area employment reports for Corio  show that it already has an unemployment rate of 9.9 per cent. There are other areas in  the west of Melbourne — in Sunshine, Melton,  Maribyrnong and Werribee — where areas have up to 9 per cent or 10 per cent unemployment.

In Greater Dandenong the unemployment rate is 12.7  per  cent. In Victoria there are 27 700 more unemployed persons and the participation rate has fallen to 64.8 per cent from 65.7 per  cent in  December 2010.  In country Victoria today there are nearly 30 000 fewer full-time jobs than there  were in December 2010. In the last two years of the Victorian Labor government, by contrast, 153 300 jobs were created — an average of  6380 per month, more than four times the rate that has been achieved under  this government. And all this occurred during a period that included the onset and  the  deepest  impacts of the global financial crisis and one of the longest droughts in Victoria’s history.

There was  a time  when you would  have been  forgiven for  thinking that  youth unemployment  was something that  this government actually  cared  about. In the 2011  families statement the  former Premier lamented that  the numbers were not all that positive — youth unemployment was around 12.5 per cent.

Two years and $300 million in cuts to TAFE later, youth unemployment in Victoria is one  of  the worst  in the  nation. The  average youth  unemployment rate  in Victoria over the period of the coalition government has been 18.3 per cent, the highest average in the  country,  well  above  the  national average of 16.6 per cent.  Victoria also currently  has the lowest  youth  participation rate, apart from the Northern Territory (NT). In other words it has the second highest youth unemployment  rate of any  mainland  state and  the  lowest youth employment  to population ratio of  any  state, at 42.9 per  cent  — the second lowest  in the country after the NT.

When vision,  purpose  and  action should  combine  to inspire  and  invigorate, instead we see blame shifting  elevated to the status of an art form. Instead of plans we have talk of plans and newspaper  advertisements  asking members of the public to share their plans so that the government can develop its own.

With all this indecision, equivocation and inertia Victoria has slowly ground to a standstill. There is no doubt that our economy is slowing down. In the 2010-11 financial  year  the  Victorian  economy  grew 12.5  per  cent  faster than  the Australian economy. In the 2011-12 financial year,  the  first full year under a coalition government, the  Victorian economy grew 32  per cent more slowly  than the Australian economy.

Victoria was once the jobs engine of the nation, but now that engine has seized. The job creation rate is faltering —  a mere 41 000 new jobs after  nearly  two and a half  years in government compared  to the last two years  of Labor, which saw  an extra  150 000-plus  jobs created, and even compared to New South Wales, which has seen more than 100 000 jobs created. Over  this government’s  term the population  of  New  South  Wales  has  increased by almost the same  number  as Victoria’s  — about  175 000  — but that  state has  created nearly  twice the number of jobs.

The  Victorian  population  is growing 2.5 times faster than jobs are growing in this state.

To quote an article that appeared in the Age newspaper recently:

“The economy in Victoria is shuddering. Unemployment is worryingly high and, by  many measures, the state is in recession. Yet by themselves, these descriptors  have a remoteness  about them, the  cool, clinical language of  economics that  gives no hint of the human consequences”.

Victorians  have been  fitted up  with a  government that not only does not know what  it is doing  but  is  leaving a mountain  of  damage  that a future  Labor government will have to clean up.

Let us look at this government’s record. It is not pretty.

The coalition’s cut to expenditure to make room for infrastructure spending  has yet to materialise, but it has contributed to unemployment. Four thousand public servants  have lost their jobs, and some of  the  most  important  programs  and government activities necessary to grow the whole state have ended.  Much-needed TAFEs in rural and regional Victoria  are having to close courses and sack staff because of unnecessary budget  cuts. As is increasingly clear, over the last two years the state has gone backwards on almost every financial measure. The budget has gone backwards, the economy has gone backwards, inequalities are on the rise and communities are being splintered.  This  is a government that fails the test of good financial management on every measure  because  a  true  measure  of any government is the wellbeing of the community it is elected to serve.

Those opposite do not even have a plan. Even if there were a plan, members  will not find a cabinet that knows  how  to execute it, depending on who  is  in that cabinet at any given time.

This is  a big-talking, slow-spending, low-octane government that is spluttering and stumbling along. The government’s lethargy is turning away investment across the state of Victoria. It is  hurting  jobs, growth and confidence. The evidence is  everywhere.  I will give  one example. Westpac released  its report entitled Coast-to-Coast  in March,  and it does not mess around in its assessment of this government. It says Victoria’s economy has:

  … weakness across  multiple  fronts and a  pronounced  drag from the  public  sector.

It goes on to say:

  The public sector has been the main swing factor in Vic’s underperformance.

The report identifies a 10 per cent contraction in demand in the year 2012. That is the biggest six-month contraction since the  recession two decades ago. It is evidence of fewer people buying fewer goods and  services and putting less money back  into  the Victorian  economy.  The report  also  identified an astonishing collapse in public investment. That figure fell by between 60 and 70 per cent in 2012. That is  evidence  of  the  government investing less money in Victoria on fewer major  projects and  creating fewer jobs. The figures do not  lie. We  are hearing over  and  over again  that  this  government’s lack  of  infrastructure projects —  real ones  — and  the building  of tangible things is hitting  the state hard.

There are major building companies in this state that cannot make the investment in jobs and skills that they would otherwise make  because there  is no pipeline to work with, nothing to  base bids or estimates on and nothing to keep  skilled staff working on.  Make  no  mistake:  these  companies  are now saying that the government has  turned the  pipeline off. It will take years to re-employ and to rebuild the skills we have seen this  government forcibly export interstate  and internationally. But it  does not  have to  be this  way. Even under a coalition government, New South Wales state and local government infrastructure investment fell by only 1  per  cent last year. In Victoria, however, the  cuts went to the bone,  and  infrastructure investment fell by 36 per  cent.  No  wonder  we  are falling behind.

A comparison  of Victoria’s economic  performance  with that of  New South Wales shows that New South Wales is doing better at growing its economy and jobs.

Since December  2010 New South Wales has  created 74 300 jobs, or  2650 jobs per month. More than 51 000 of those were full time. Our  nearest regular measure of state growth, state  final demand,  shows that  in the final quarter of 2012 the Victorian  economy shrank by 0.7 per cent while the New South Wales economy grew by 0.4 per cent.  For the year to 2012  Victoria’s state final demand shrank  by 0.3 per cent  while  the  New South Wales figure grew  by  2.7  per cent, all on trend.

In the former  Treasurer’s defence  — he  was nothing if not inconsistent — 18 months  before the last election, in a speech  to  the  Committee  for  Economic Development of Australia on 29 April 2009, he said that:

  … the  state government had a responsibility to encourage and facilitate new  investment and support business to maintain and grow employment.

  To reiterate, jobs must be the highest priority.

  … the state  government’s  performance will be assessed on how it deals with  the growing jobs crisis.

There was no jobs crisis — that  is, not  until these feckless phoneys opposite occupied the Treasury benches. That is no coincidence; that is incompetence.  We on this  side do not talk down the economy;  we watch in despair as the policies of those on the other side of the chamber drain this state.

What  happened  when  the jobs junkie — the aspiring Treasurer  —  landed  the glittering prize of government?

He offloaded any semblance whatsoever of his concern about jobs, jobs, jobs, and settled  into  a  blissful  slumber  of  austerity  and  inertia. This  Napthine government is a bad administration without a clue and  in search  of a  purpose. After  the Baillieu-Wells  purge  Liberal prognosticators  said the government’s problem is  its inability  to sell  its message.  That is  just spin;  there  is nothing  to  sell.  The basic problem for  this  government  is  that  it  lacks substance. Jobs are created  in  the  Victorian economy when dirt is shifted and work is under  way. In  effect the  jobs crisis  and economic  malaise that  has descended  upon  this  state  is  a  direct  consequence  of  this  government’s ergophobia — that is, its irrational fear of work.

This is a government that  thinks counter-cyclical investment strategies involve going around in circles backwards. Few governments could match this government’s skill in giving the  impression of moving  without actually getting anywhere  or having any idea where it is supposed to be going.

This  government  has decided that  major  projects will  be  nothing  more than castles in the air because the real things are  too hard. It ducks the  question of who will ultimately pay by setting long-term goals but narrowing the terms of the debate to the current budget cycle. No amount of overcompensating talk about bigger and bigger projects  that are not happening will make up for the  lack of real action.

The new Treasurer approved of the austerity budget. He described it as:

  … an  excellent budget from a coalition government which has found itself in  very challenging financial times.

He then proceeded  to  blame  a  variety  of  factors,  including GST revenue to Victoria  and  some  of  the effects of the global financial  crisis.  But  what happenedto the member  for Malvern, who came to this place bright eyed, bushy tailed and fired up by a sense of purpose and destiny? On 19 December 2006, in this  place, he said:

  … if we wish for Victoria to continue as a sovereign state, we must act like  one. That means no more finger pointing and no more blame shifting.

I will  tell you  what happened  to him:  the federal government changed, and he found himself in government without  a clue what to do. You guessed it — he has done nothing but blame shift since he has been in government.

Victorians have every right to  feel let  down by  this government.  It has been 1770 days since we were promised an integrated transport plan, and still we have nothing  in respect  of this plan. This government  has ground  this state  to a standstill, and we need a change for the better.

See Tim’s speech in Hansard here.